Nikon Fisheye 16mm Lens Review – Stuck in Customs

Nikon Fisheye 16mm Lens Review

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I like the Nikon 16mm lens. It’s a bit more expensive, but it’s also the best one to get for full-frame cameras (or if you plan on going in that direction).

Nikon Fisheye Lens Review

Like my other reviews, this is a “living” review. I’ll come back from time to time to update it! I haven’t been using this lens as long as my Nikon 14-24mm (see my Nikon 14-24mm Lens Review), but I am feeling a bit more experienced with it now.

I rented one many years ago and I did not like it. I think it is because I used it for family photos on a strange trip, and I just, well, didn’t like it! That kind of stuck with me until a trip to France where I borrowed Tom’s. We were in tight architecture situations, and I was so impressed that I had to get it on my camera!

It seems to work best when there is just A LOT to capture in a scene, and traditional wide angle just can’t cut it. You can see some of these examples below.

One great thing about the lens is how TINY it is. You can throw it in your bag and it hardly even counts as another lens. With my other lenses, there is always a decision process in place! But with this little fisheye, it’s basically an afterthought. It’s about 1/4 the size of my hulking 14-24!

Sample Fisheye Photos

Here are many sample photos. You may also want to look at the LAST TWO in the series, where I compare side-by-side with the NIkon 14-24mm.

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The Horse in Paradise Tom and I just took a drive out to Paradise, NZ (Yes, this is a real place!), just beyond Glenorchy. Along the way, we saw all kinds of amazing landscapes and dramatic animals. Here’s one of the dramatic horses, striking a pose!I used one of my Lightroom Presets (new store link) to make this image… this one is an HDR-in-Lightroom setting called “Drama in the Center”!- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

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The Wolfman Violinith Here’s my favorite photo from the Austin Photowalk … one of the many street performers howls into the streetlight moon… - Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

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The seedy part of Tokyo Well, it’s not that seedy. I mean, it’s not dangerous. Maybe if you stay till the wee hours of the morning things might get crazy, but I don’t think so. Despite all the houses of ill-repute, there were still a ton of people walking around… all types, all ages, and everything in between.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

This show from Tokyo has the lens correction adjustment to make it looks more normal. I think it looks pretty good, but you can see some CA in the corners. This bothers some people a lot — but not me. Who looks at photos at 100%? Hardly anybody… just mega-camera-nerds.

HDR Photo

The Nikon Fisheye grabs everything and more. I was quite impressed at how the Christmas Tree does not look warped and still maintains its triangular shape. BTW, I don’t love the processing I did on this one… I’ll work on another one… ignore the processing, but you can just look at how much of the scene it grabs.

 

HDR Photo

This is the same basic shot, just with the Nikon 14-24mm instead. See more in my Nikon 14-24mm Review here on the site.